Could someone guide me on when to transfer to my secondry fermentation. I know it sounds silly but yeasts are yeasts. A guide to me is 7 days is this plenty of time or should it be earlier. Just to let you know I ferment under controlled temperature for ales at 18 degress C. I dont want to take out my fermented beer and take readings every few days when to rake. I guide will suit me well for Ales and Lagers at lower temperatures.
G'Day to all.
Ray Downunder

My theory is that seeing as the main purpose of transferring is to allow the beer to have a place to rest without it sitting on a bed of decomposing dead yeast, it should be done once most of the fermentation activity has died down, so you don't just get a new, thick yeast bed. That said, it must be a good idea to still have some fermenting going on, as this generates overpressure in the fermenter to stop air getting in, and a layer of heavy CO2 to again protect the maturing beer. Plus, the remaining active yeast will be doing some diacetyl digesting.
My rule of thumb is "once the airlock is bubbling so slowly that I don't have the patience to wait for a glug". That's the theory, it seems to work!